Many parts are created by machining a workpiece to remove material. In particular, industries that have many specialized parts often create parts by machining them rather than incurring capital expenditures to create the parts using other methods, such as by casting the parts using a mold. In other situations, machining a part (workpiece) may be necessary to finish a surface in accordance with a particular specification. For example, in the aerospace industry, machined parts typically have to adhere to design tolerances having small ranges for variance, and thus require precise manufacturing, which often includes a machining process when parts are formed from metal. The workpiece may be formed of virtually any material that may be machined including varieties of wood, metals, and composites.
One particular machining operation involves removing material using a milling tool, which removes material by cutting away at an engagement area on a workpiece as the milling tool rotates along an axis that is perpendicular to an engagement direction of the milling tool. Milling tools (or bits) efficiently remove undesired material from the surface of a workpiece to create the part. However, milling tools may have some drawbacks. One drawback when using milling tools may be a propensity for the milling tool to cause a workpiece and/or the milling tool to vibrate or chatter. Chatter is particularly prevalent in relatively thin parts that have a small thickness to height ratio. Besides being noisy, vibrations may also have an undesirable affect on the finish of a workpiece, such as by creating cuts that are deeper than intended thereby resulting in out-of-tolerance portions of the part. In addition, vibrations may generate increased heat, shorten an effective lifespan of the milling tool, or otherwise cause adverse affects to the workpiece or milling tool.
In some circumstances, a thin workpiece may be stiffened to reduce vibrations by adding additional mass or pressure to the workpiece. Pressure may be asserted on the workpiece manually (e.g., by operator, etc.) or by a tool. In an example, a weighted strip may be attached to the side of the workpiece that is not being machined. The weighted strip may reduce chatter and vibrations by increasing the total mass of the thin feature, thus counteracting forces that initiate vibration (at least initially). In some instances, weighted strips may be impractical (e.g., due to space constraints, etc.), time consuming to implement, or ineffective at limiting vibrations to an acceptable level.
Therefore, it would be desirable to have a method and/or apparatus that overcomes one or more of the issues described above, as well as other possible issues.